Smile, Smile, Smile

Head to limp head, the sunk-eyed wounded scanned         Yesterday's Mail; the casualties (typed small)         And (large) Vast Booty from our Latest Haul.         Also, they read of Cheap Homes, not yet planned;         For, said the paper, "When this war is done         The men's first instinct will be making homes.         Meanwhile their foremost need is aerodromes,         It being certain war has just begun.         Peace would do wrong to our undying dead,--         The sons we offered might regret they died         If we got nothing lasting in their stead.         We must be solidly indemnified.         Though all be worthy Victory which all bought,         We rulers sitting in this ancient spot         Would wrong our very selves if we forgot         The greatest glory will be theirs who fought,         Who kept this nation in integrity."         Nation?--The half-limbed readers did not chafe         But smiled at one another curiously         Like secret men who know their secret safe.         This is the thing they know and never speak,         That England one by one had fled to France         (Not many elsewhere now save under France).         Pictures of these broad smiles appear each week,         And people in whose voice real feeling rings         Say: How they smile! They're happy now, poor things.         23rd September 1918.